meshO Manager

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Creating an event ​

Audience: Event organisers setting up a new competition in Manager.

How to create an event, edit its settings, and understand the options that shape how the event runs.

The Events page ​

Open Manager and navigate to Events (this is where you land by default). The page has two tabs, each showing how many events it holds:

  • Upcoming — events dated today or later that haven't finished, and any event that is currently running, soonest first.
  • History — finished events and events whose date has passed, most recent first, with a search field to filter by name.

Each event is shown as a card with its name, date, and a coloured status chip: Setup, Live (or Testing), Stopping…, Interrupted, Complete or Abandoned. These are the event's modes: an event in Setup mode is being prepared, Live is running, and Complete has been finished and is in Archive.

Clicking a card opens that event's dashboard. If you try to open a different event while another one is currently in progress, Manager asks you to confirm — the live event keeps running in the background. If Manager was shut down while an event was running, it offers to Resume event the next time the Events page opens.

A multi-stage event appears as a single row with its stages nested underneath; clicking the header opens the carnival's overview, and clicking a stage opens that stage's event like any other.

Beside the tabs is a row of actions:

  • New — create an event (see below).
  • Restore — restore an event from a backup zip. See Backup and restore.
  • Samples — add one of the sample events that come with Manager, to explore it before running a real event (only when your installation includes them).
  • Live standby — make this computer keep a live copy of an event running on another one. See Live standby.
  • Multi-event — jobs that span several events at once: bib allocation, importing bibs, and the IOF ranking. See Bib numbers and IOF ranking.

On a computer with no events yet, the welcome banner offers New event, Restore from backup, Try a sample event and Live standby instead.

The event card's actions ​

Each event card carries its actions below the status chip:

  • Backup event (download icon) — makes a zip backup of the event. Choose Download to save it through your browser, or Save on server to keep it in the server's backups folder, where Restore → From server finds it.
  • Duplicate event — builds a new event from this one. See Duplicating an event.
  • Delete event (red trash) — permanently removes it. It is unavailable while the event is in progress.
  • Push to cloud — appears when cloud sync is configured, and publishes the event to the cloud there and then.

A finished event also shows a small grey cloud beside its status chip: with a tick once it has been published to the cloud, or with a clock while it is waiting for this computer to be online. Finishing an event publishes it automatically unless that is turned off, the event is dated in the future, it was run in test mode, it has fewer than five results, or it is a sample event — see Cloud sync in Settings and the Cloud sync tab below.

An event a live standby has taken over shows Taken over by and the standby's name. It can't be started again on this computer.

Upcoming on Eventor ​

With Eventor connected, the Upcoming tab also lists, below your own events, the events published on Eventor that have no Manager event yet — marked Eventor. Clicking one creates the event from Eventor straight away. A relay (or an event Eventor can't classify) opens the New event dialog first, so you can confirm the type and set the legs and mass start. Choose events opens Settings → Eventor, where you choose which organisations' events are listed, or limit them to names containing some text. See Creating an event from Eventor.

Creating a new event ​

Click New event (in the banner at the top of the page) or New (beside the tabs).

If you have Eventor switched on, the button opens a menu with two ways to create an event:

  • Create manually… — an empty event with default settings, which you then edit to fit your competition. Described below.
  • Import from Eventor… — classes, competitors, clubs and start times pulled from an event published on Eventor. See Creating an event from Eventor.

Without Eventor switched on there is nothing to choose between, so the button goes straight to the manual dialog.

Creating an event manually ​

The New event dialog asks for an Event name and an Event date — both pre-filled, so you can leave them — and what you're creating:

  • Individual — an ordinary event.
  • Relay — a team event; reveals a Number of legs field (default 3) and a Mass start time (default 10:00:00).
  • Multi-stage — a competition run across several events; asks only which kind: a Carnival (stages scored and added up) or a Knock-out (rounds whose field comes from the round before).

The name starts as the day of the week of the date you chose, such as "Saturday event" (or "Saturday relay event" for a relay), and follows the date and type until you type a name of your own.

Click Create and Manager creates it and opens it — an event at its dashboard, a multi-stage competition at its overview. A multi-stage competition first shows a notice that multi-stage events are still experimental; click Continue to create it. A carnival arrives with three placeholder stages on consecutive days from the date you chose, which you then re-date on its Stages tab; a knock-out arrives empty, because its rounds are generated from a template.

Note: The event type is fixed at creation and can't be changed later, and so is a multi-stage competition's kind. Most events are Individual; for team relays choose Relay — see Relay events. A relay event can also hold ordinary individual classes beside its relays, so if a day has both, create it as Relay — see Mixed events. A Multi-stage event isn't a third event type: it's a container whose stages are ordinary events, so nothing about running a stage changes — see Multi-stage events and Knock-out competitions.

The new event is in Setup mode and gets:

  • Name and Date — what the dialog showed when you clicked Create.
  • From Settings → Event defaults — the start, finish and check codes, competition level, discipline, course format, whether punching starts override allocated starts, and the timing card system.
  • From Settings → meshO Prime — whether meshO Prime collects radio punches for it.
  • From Settings → Auto backup — its auto backup settings.
  • Everything else — off or empty: no mass start (except a relay, which is always a mass start), no course closure, sub-second timing off, no class in quarantine, no extensions.

Open the event details from the dashboard (see Editing event details below) and edit anything else you need to before adding competitors or going live.

Tip: The defaults are there to save you repeating the same choices event after event. If you find yourself changing the same field on every new event, set it in Settings → Event defaults instead.

Editing event details ​

Once inside an event, click Event details on the event card at the top of the dashboard to open the Event details dialog. This is where you configure everything about how the event runs. Click Save to keep your changes.

If the event was imported from Eventor (and Eventor is switched on), the dialog title shows an Eventor ID chip for traceability.

The dialog is organised into tabs down the left-hand side:

  • Details — name, date, description, classification, timing card system, course closure, sub-second timing
  • Score — only where it matters: the default points, time limit and late penalty for score courses
  • Starts — mass start, punching-start override, runners with no start time (a relay event has Relay here instead)
  • Radio controls — meshO Prime and SIRAP, the start/finish/check codes, forwarding
  • Live results — publishing this event to liveresultat.orientering.se
  • Cloud sync — publishing this event to a cloud meshO Manager, so spectators can browse it online
  • Quarantine — holding back elite classes' results until a release
  • Printing — when splits print and what is on them, result labels, cards read over the radio network, and the QR code
  • Hire items — whether a download warns the desk to collect a hire item
  • Low-key event — for club trainings and come-and-try events with nothing set up beforehand
  • Extensions — enable and configure installed extensions
  • Backup & export — periodic backups of the event, and a live export of its results on a schedule

Details ​

  • Event name — editable at any time. Must be at least 3 characters.
  • Event date — picked from a calendar, which doesn't offer dates in the past. Editable in Setup mode; locked once the event goes Live, and after it is finished.
  • Description — optional free-text notes about the event.
  • Competition level — Local, Regional, State, National or International. Informational; used by exports and reports.
  • Discipline — the course length (Sprint, Middle, Long, Ultra long) or the competition format (Knock out sprint, Sprint relay, Mass start, Pursuit, Relay, Mixed relay, Qualification, PreO, TempO). Informational; used by exports and reports. Picking a relay discipline describes the race — it doesn't make the event a relay; that is the event type, chosen when the event was created.
  • Timing card system — SportIdent or EMIT: which cards the download desk reads at this event. It can only be changed during setup. See Card download.
  • Course format — Line, Scatter or Score: what you flag the event as, and what a new course starts as. Each course can be changed on its own.
  • Time zone — where the event is held. Manager records it when the event is created, from the computer creating it, and every start and finish time the event exports — IOF XML and Orienteering JSON alike — is stated in this zone. Change it if the event was set up on a computer somewhere else. A copy synced to the cloud keeps it too; an event published there before Manager recorded zones can have its zone set from the cloud copy's own Event details.
  • Course closure — optional. The time of day every competitor has to be back. Off unless you turn it on; when you do, the Course closure time defaults to 15:00. Once that time of day passes, Manager settles whoever nobody has accounted for — anyone still out is marked Overtime, anyone who never started DNS (unless they checked in and nothing has seen them since — they become Overtime, so they stay on your On course list), and a radio finish with no card downloaded yet DNF — and a card downloaded afterwards whose finish punch was late is scored Overtime rather than OK. It never overrides a status you set yourself, and anyone marked Overtime with nothing to show they came back stays on the On course list. See Safety check.
  • Use sub-second timing — off unless you turn it on, and off is right for almost every event. Left off, a whole second is the smallest difference Manager will separate two runners by: two people who finish inside the same second dead-heat, two splits inside the same second share the leg rank, and a gap that small is shown as no gap at all. Turn it on for a race actually timed to fractions — a sprint final, a knock-out heat — and Manager decides splits, places and gaps on the fractions the cards carry, and shows race times to a hundredth (30:00.23). Only race times show the fraction: split times, cumulative times and gaps stay in whole seconds wherever they appear, so a splits table doesn't become a wall of digits. You can change it whenever you like, including after the results are in — nothing is thrown away either way, and nothing has to be downloaded again. It isn't one of the event defaults: every new event starts with it off. See Timing to the second or to fractions of a second.

Score ​

This tab appears only when it decides something: when the event's Course format is Score, or when one of its courses is a score course. Its three values are the event's defaults — a class can state its own, and a control can be worth its own points on the Controls page.

  • Points per control — what a control is worth unless it says otherwise. 1 to begin with.
  • Time limit (minutes) — leave blank for no limit.
  • Penalty per minute late — points taken off for each minute over the time limit. Part minutes count as a whole one; zero means no penalty.

Starts ​

Mass start — switch on if all or most competitors start at the same time. When on, set the Mass start time. Defaults to 10:00:00 the first time you switch it on.

Allow punching starts to override allocated starts — if a competitor punches a start unit, use that punch as their start time even if they had an allocated start time. Turn off if your event uses strict allocated starts only. This can also be overridden for each competitor, if required. See Punched starts. With no start unit at all, a course can take its first control's punch as the start — see Starting or finishing at a numbered control.

Time runners with no start from check punch or midnight — what happens to a finisher with no start punch, no allocated start and no start override: on, they're timed from their check punch (or from midnight when there is none) and placed on that time; off, they're Not competing until you give them a start time, and the download desk says why. Choose Use global setting, On for this event or Off for this event; the global setting is in Settings → Event defaults. See A runner with no start time.

Relay ​

A relay event has this tab instead of Starts. A relay is always a mass start, so there is no switch:

  • Default relay legs — how many legs a new relay class has. Each class can use a different count.
  • Mass start time — when the first legs start.
  • Restart — switch on and set a Restart time at which runners still waiting to go out in every relay class restart together, unless a class sets its own. Off unless you switch it on.

See Relay events.

Radio controls ​

This tab covers everything about radio-delivered punches.

Radio controls source — where radio punches come from at this event:

  • meshO Prime — switch on if you have a meshO Prime radio network in the field. Manager then listens for radio punches from your Prime base unit. This switch only appears when meshO Prime is turned on for this computer in Settings → meshO Prime. See Connecting meshO Prime and radios.
  • Accept SIRAP punches — accept incoming SIRAP-protocol punches from external sources.

The rest of the tab appears once at least one source is on.

Start/finish/check radio control codes — radio punches carry only an SI control code (e.g. 2), not a "start" / "finish" / "check". Manager uses these fields to know what each code means at this event. Any code not listed here is treated as a regular radio control along a course.

  • Start codes — SI codes of your start units.
  • Finish codes — SI codes of your finish units.
  • Check codes — SI codes of your check units.

Enter one or more codes per field, comma-separated. The same code can't appear in more than one field. These remain editable during the event. See Start, Finish and Check codes.

Forward radio punches (only when meshO Prime is on) — forwards each incoming radio punch to the destinations configured in Settings → Radio punch forwarding.

Auto-mark controls as radio controls — on to begin with. When a radio punch arrives for a control on a course, that control is marked as a radio control, so it appears in tracking, the leaderboard and commentary without ticking each one by hand.

Live results ​

Publishes this event's results to liveresultat.orientering.se while it runs. Switch on Publish to Liveresultat, then either Create new… to create a competition there, or Link existing… to point the event at one that already exists (you need its Competition ID and five-digit Upload password). Once linked, the tab shows the competition's details, whether it Is public (with Publish and Hide), Publish automatically on start, links to its Organiser page and Spectator page, and Unlink. See Publishing live results online.

Cloud sync ​

Publishes this event to a cloud meshO Manager, where spectators can browse it. Publish automatically when finished decides whether finishing this event publishes it: Use global setting (from Settings → Cloud sync), on, or off. The tab also shows where the event stands on the cloud with a link to its spectator page, Push to cloud to publish it now, and the Sync history — an event finished, restarted for a late card and finished again is synced more than once, and each is listed. Delete from the cloud takes the event off the public site; the event on this computer is left as it is, and its automatic sync is switched off so it is not published again the next time it is finished. If cloud sync isn't set up on this computer, the tab says so. See Publishing live results online.

Quarantine ​

Holds back the results of classes whose runners are in quarantine — usually the elite classes — from the spectator app, kiosk, leaderboard screens, liveresultat and the live export, until each class is released at its last start or at a set time. See Results quarantine.

Printing ​

Per-event overrides for the settings in Settings → Printing: when this event's splits print and what is on them, its result labels, and where cards read over the radio network print. The printers themselves, and where each computer's prints go, are not the event's — they are set up in Settings → Printing (Open printer settings) and stay set up from one event to the next. See Printing splits.

  • Automatic print splits on download, Hold a mis-punch printout, Print meshO logo, Print top 3 places, Print mistakes, Print strong legs — each Use global setting (on/off), On for this event or Off for this event.
  • Splits language — the installation's, or a language of this event's own.
  • Result label overrides — Result labels on or off for this event, and the Label printer; the layout stays the one in Settings.
  • Cards read over the radio network — where a card read by a radio download station prints its Splits and Labels, and Print splits only when the status is OK, each overriding Settings → Printing → Radio downloads for this event.

QR code — a QR code printed at the bottom of each competitor's splits, generated from a URL template. Three modes:

  • Use global setting — uses the template from Settings → Printing → Splits print. If the global setting prints no QR code, none is printed for this event either.
  • Customise for this event — set a QR code URL template just for this event. Supported placeholders: {competitorId}, {eventId}, {cardNumber}. A Use this server's spectator URL button fills in a sensible default. You can also set an optional QR code heading printed above the code and a QR code caption printed below it; left empty, each uses the global one.
  • Disable for this event — no QR code is printed, regardless of the global setting.

Hire items ​

Show collect hire item warning on download — on to begin with. Downloading a card from the hire-card pool, or of a competitor holding any other hire item, pops up a prompt listing everything to collect before they leave. See Hire items.

Low-key event ​

Five switches for club trainings and come-and-try events with nothing set up beforehand, all off for a new event: Auto create competitors on download, Auto create courses and classes, Ignore competitor registry, Ignore hire cards and Quick name entry on download. See Low-key events.

Extensions ​

Each installed extension appears with a switch. Enabling an extension reveals its per-event configuration fields (extensions can also have app-wide configuration set on the Extensions page).

If no extensions are installed, the tab shows a hint pointing to the Extensions page. See Configuring extensions.

Backup & export ​

This tab holds the things that write files on a schedule: the event's auto backup, its copy on an external drive, and a live export of its results.

Auto backup ​

Enable auto backup — when on, Manager periodically writes a zip backup of the event to an auto-backup/ directory inside the event's folder while the event is running. You can restore from these zips with the standard restore-from-backup flow. Off unless you turn it on, for this event or for every new event in Settings → Auto backup.

Backup frequency — how often to take a backup: every 5, 10, 15, 30 or 60 minutes.

Backups to keep — how many of this event's auto-backups are kept: 1, 2, 5, 10, or All. Once a new backup has been written, any older ones beyond that number are deleted, so the folder doesn't grow all day. Files you put in the folder yourself are left alone.

Backup to external drive — the auto-backup above is on the same disk as the event, so if that disk fails it goes too. Turn this on to copy a backup of the event to a USB drive or external disk as well, while the event is running. Then choose the Drive from the list of drives attached to the computer running meshO Manager (plug it in and press Refresh if it is not there yet); the disk holding the event data is never offered. The drive is recognised by its own ID, or its name if it has none, not by where it is plugged in, so moving it to another port is fine, and a different drive plugged in where it was is never written to. A line under the list says whether the chosen drive will take a backup now. The copy has its own Backup frequency (10, 15, 30, 60 or 120 minutes — a USB drive is much slower than the computer's own disk, so you will usually want it less often than the local backup) and its own Backups to keep. Copies go in a meshO-backups folder on the drive, one folder per event. If the drive is not plugged in, full or write-protected when a copy is due, an alert says so, and a second alert says when copies are being taken again.

Live export ​

Export live results on a schedule — when on, Manager writes the event's results as an IOF XML file every so often while the event is running (Export every: from every 5 seconds to every 30 minutes), so a results system watching a folder can pick them up. Include radio controls adds runners still on course and their radio-control passing times; off, only downloaded results are exported. File naming: Overwrite a single file always writes results.xml, which systems that watch the folder (such as LiveResults EmmaClient) need; New file for each export keeps every export, each named with its time. The tab shows the folder the files are written to (one for individual classes and one for relay classes, when the event has both) and when the last export was written; on the server computer it also has buttons to copy the folder path and open the folder. If exports start failing, it says so.

Moving an event to another computer ​

To hand a set-up event to whoever is running it on the day, or move it to the laptop that goes to the event, back it up and restore it there. See Moving an event to another computer for the steps and the checks to make afterwards.

Duplicating an event ​

Most events are the next running of one you have already set up. Rather than building it again, click the duplicate icon on the event's card.

The Duplicate event dialog asks for the Name of the new event and the Date of the new event, and whether to bring the field with it. The name starts as the name of the event you are duplicating — change it if this running has its own name, or leave it as it is for the next race in a series. The setup always comes across: classes, courses, controls, clubs, radio-control assignments, spectator screens, the map and its calibration, and every event setting.

One switch decides the rest, and it starts off:

  • Keep all competitors — off, so the new event starts with nobody entered. Turn it on when the same field is running again and you would rather edit the entries than re-import them. You get the people, not their race: everyone carried across keeps their name, club, class, card number and drawn start time, and arrives as an entry that has not run.

A duplicate never carries last week's race. Whichever way you answer that switch, the copy has no card downloads, no radio punches, no punch corrections, no results, and none of the Start, Check and Finish times recovered from station backup memory. Anything you had ruled at the last event, such as a disqualification, is left behind too, and so is a start time that came from punching the start or check unit rather than from the start list. So is an On start punch of Allow punching start that Manager switched on because the competitor punched the start before their drawn time; one you chose yourself comes across. This is not a choice because there is no good answer to it: the times belong to another day, a card kept without its owner waits to attach itself to whoever is entered on that card next time, and a copy holding either would say a competitor who has not started is already out on course. If you want last week's race, you still have last week's event.

If the new event is on different terrain, replace the map on the new event once it is created.

The date can be today or later; for an event already in the past, the dialog offers today. Click Duplicate and Manager creates the copy and opens it, ready for this event's entries.

The copy is a new event in every sense: its own event id, and none of the identity of the one it came from. It has not been started, it is not published to liveresultat or to the cloud, it is not a stage of a multi-stage event, and it carries neither the original's Eventor link nor its audit trail. The event you duplicated is not touched.

Deleting an event ​

On the Events page, click the red trash icon on the event's card. Confirm the prompt. This permanently removes the event and all its data. There is no undo, so if you might want it again, back it up first. An event that is in progress can't be deleted — finish it first.

What's locked when the event is in progress ​

Once you click Start event, the Event date and the Timing card system become read-only, and stay so after the event is finished. Changing the date of a running event would invalidate time calculations. The event type was fixed when the event was created.

Everything else — name, description, classification, radio settings, unit codes, starts configuration, competitors, classes, courses, start times — remains editable throughout the event.